Did Women Cause Us To Start Crossdressing?

[deebra]

The question is "Did growing up with, being around or sexually desiring beautiful, sexy women" cause you to be drawn to and start crossdressing? For example if you were the youngest of four and your three older sisters were very pretty and well built with colorful sexy lingerie laying around all the time would this cause you to be drawn to being like them and had to try on their undies to see what it felt like and it was transforming you to be like them? Another example, Bruce Jenner was featured on the T.V. program E, for twenty years he was around four sexy women getting ALL the attention, E pointed out his finger nails, long hair, plastic surgery, etc. all suggesting he is changing his physical to be female. A navy seal recently transitioned. We all know women get a lot more attention and compliments than men. Men's clothes are drab and rough and do very little to make a man desirable, on the other hand a woman's presentation and clothing, appearance is just the opposite. If a male is around this female environment or really loves and desires beautiful women wouldn't this make him curious enough to try dressing to emulate one? Also, do you every wonder how women's thinking can be so different, some are o.k. with men cding, some wives enjoy it and encourage it and other freek out and it's boxers or the highway. Do you have the answer?

[Katehall]

I think you are on to something here... I've thought this myself during my stages of "why me". I thought of many reasons but came to the general idea that I must have gotten these ideas from the commercials on TV. The same commercials that give girls horrible self-images. I grew up with a single mom who was also not afraid to walk around the house in a bra and stockings getting ready for her date. I always saw this as normal then, but now I look back and realize I got my sexual identity from those experiences as she felt, looked, and was accepted by the opposite sex as attractive. So, at a young age I must have put these images to play and when I tried on my first pair it was all over. Women have it made, but also get the brunt of it. I love being both! LOL!!!

[Krististeph]

There is a lot of evidence it seems. But then there is the physical evidence that the tendency towards crossdressing and transgenderism is linked to developmental differences in certain parts of the brain, the stria terminalis, & possibly hippocampus and amygdala as well, generally accepted for the time being as an effect of atypical androgen exposure in fetal development.

Yes, i like the attention girls get, but the more I looked into it, and dressing as a girl, i realized there is also unwanted attention. Hasn't changed me a bit- so i think the external influences are a minor aspect only. I think intelligence or creativity, or the willingness to accept that you do not need to follow the crowd, is also a minor influence, but this is unscientific of me.
Kristi

[Karren H]

I was the oldest.... and started dressing when I was 7.... when my sister was born.... I'm sure women were the root of this.... just because they exist! lol. Probably not the best excursion to tell your wife? "It's your fault I'm like this!"

[Katey888]

Sorry to kick off with a negative, Deebra, but nope for me!

No sisters, no close female relatives, no friendly girls and no girlfriend until I was 18.

And do I wonder how SOs are so different? No more than I would expect everyone's nature and background to influence their world view in different ways, and this subject is so very taboo in some communities it's no real surprise there are differences. Relationships vary hugely as well: what makes a successful one or a disastrous one can be poles apart.

I'll be brave and suggest no one has the answer here... it's a fallacy to think we'll get to any universal truth here - the more I wrangle with it the more I think those that say "go with the flow" have the only 'answer'..

Katey x

[suzy1]

I grew up with three brothers and no sisters and was crossdressing by the age of four.
So to answer your question……no.

[Wildaboutheels]

The answer is simple and denying it won't change it. The vast majority of men CD because women's clothing items allow them ONE easy way to the promised land, THE most addictive thing on the planet. Almost all at least "pass through"that phase and it's well documented here and quite obvious for anyone that bothers to READ replies. Many of the Forum Dinos here have moved on from that phase for the most part. Many become full or "fuller dressers" and many still get "high" from wearing any female items. Or brains are extremely good at "associating" and remembering "pleasure" and just as good or better at remembering pain. Pavlov... may have been a CDer?

Women [in general] DO have an undeniable "power" over most men, so wishing to have some of that power undoubtedly figures into the CDing equation for some.

Even a 5 year old girl knows that the more attractive any female, the more "power" she will have. [a wider choice of mates]

Having/getting this "power" is THE reason WHY women have so much more choice in clothing It's also the reason most will spend inordinate amounts of time on makeup, shapewear etc. Few men will BENEFIT from such efforts. Spend any time at all at any Dating Forum and this conclusion is inescapable. A man's APPEARANCE is seldom at the top of most women's priority list but almost always at the top of most men's lists. Evolution 101. It's NOT going to change anytime soon.

Very few females CD. The math for that is simple given how FEmale brains process visual information.

[suchacutie]

Not cause, facilitate. The lingerie was available. A couple of jokes between us, an OMG or two, and suddenly revelation that this wasn't just a couple of jokes. Tina was born.

[Secret Drawer]

Wildaboutheels, you just posted a thread about definitives!? Then you lead a response with "The answer is simple and denying it won't change it." OK, so if I deny what you say because it is not at all true about me (and many others here!), then I guess I am wrong according to you? NO. Not all of us use or ever used crossdressing as a form of sexual gratification. GET OVER IT! For some of us, crossdressing is just one (small) part of expressing who we are on the outside. It doesn't have to or even imply a sexual element... My wife loves wearing jeans but it doesn't necessarily make her horny doing it! Nor I, even after discovering the virtues of women's jeans.
To answer the OP; The idea of being sexually attractive is a power to be sure. So even if we didn't grow up in an environment seeing this power in action, we eventually discover its reality. The idea that we can (at least occasionally) obtain a bit of this attraction is empowering for us as well.
As far as why women are so different... well, when they give groups of men a series of women to look at and are asked to pick just one, most (in fact) pick the same one. Women are much more unpredictable even in a simple test such as this. I think I would be flattered to see a woman wearing the same skirt as me, but wow there can be fireworks when two GG's show up dressed the same! (Not so much into sharing that power maybe?)

[CONSUELO]

Older sisters dressed me when I was 5 years old. I have been a cross dresser ever since.

[Kate Simmons]

Not really for myself. It just felt natural to me.

[Vanessa5]

I am the oldest. Not that many femine role models in my family. Found some pantyhose in the garbage one day and things kinda took off from there.

[Dianne S]

Hmm, I don't know. I have two older sisters, so maybe. Apparently they dressed me up in doll's clothes when I was a baby (I was much too young to remember this... maybe 6 months old.) Also, after they moved out, I did find a bra one of my sisters had left behind and I took it.

[Jenniferathome]

No. I didn't know what sexy was at 7 years old. My older sisters were not objects in any way. Nor my mother. I think all of your examples are misplaced. The answer for cross dressing is genetic

[Alice Torn]

I definitely was inspired to dress like the beautiful girls and women i have been around in school, work, just ones i see in places. I have always been shy to try to befriend the ones i am greatly attracted to, and beffriended ones who were much less attractive outwardly. I try to dress up like the ones i have seen, that most attract me. Snug sleeveless sheath, and shift dresses, skirt suits, knee length skirts, snug tops, hose and heels. At singles dances, there were several that i cannot forget, and do try to look a lot like them, in how i dress up. Very few women crossdress, true. But, if they could go back in a time machine 80 years or so, in t shirt and jeans, and sneakers, they would be pointed out, and accused of it! Times have change some, a bit of good, and bad.

[Ressie]

I wouldn't use the word cause, but my older sister's clothes had an influence on my curiosity. Without sister's and mom's clothing around the house there wouldn't have been any femle attire to try on. For those that don't have older sisters, couldn't the influence be from your mother's clothing?

And yes, as a teen I envied the seductive power that females have. Post #7 may not define all CDs, but it fits me perfectly.

[Sister Rachel]

I first chose to put on "female" clothing three or four years before any of my (half-)sisters were born. It's an innate desire, I think.

Many years ago, I read a theory that m/f crossdressing was rooted in early-age separation from one's mother, and that seemed to have some credibility in my case, as my mum left my dad when I was very young and my dad fought for and won custody ( unusual in those days) so I was brought up by first my grandmother and then my stepmother. From my reading on this excellent forum, though, I'm pretty sure that most of us had pretty normal relationships with our mums?

So it's innate and hard-wired into us, I think, although if one did have older sisters in the household, it'd be their clothes one would be trying on first. (Before any of my stepmother's stuff fitted me, I would make towels, shirts and my pyjama jacket into makeshift skirts.At least now, 50 years on, I can buy my own gear!).

[Alice Torn]

Ressi, I was the youngest, and yes, i did get greatly interested in some of my mom's and sister' hose, and a dress, girdles, bras. It got me going, but, i did quit for a number of years, after , my parents tried to get me to go see a "shrink". I think they knew.

[Alice Torn]

Brenda. Oh yes, the towells, sheets, pretending they were skirts! Me, too, as late as 1996. I did not think it was possible to find high heels my size, so i even considered making cowboy boots into high heel pumps! There must be something genetic, as well as outside stimuli.

[Lorileah]

If that were true then most of us would be firemen or race car drivers or astronauts. If seeing something can make you something, I wanna be a millionaire

[Alice Torn]

Some people see firemen or cops, or sports stars, and immediately want to become one. Some see lovely women, and desire to catch that look.

[Stephanie47]

I was the second of two boys. My brother and I are fourteen months apart. Our sister was not born until I was almost twelve and by that time I had tried on my first nylon slip. I had four cousins who are all boys. I was rough and tumble. There were no girls in the apartment building I grew up in, so there was no influence from playmates. I still clearly remember my kintergarden teacher making a comment about by cowboy shirt. She said she liked my blouse. I was HIGHLY offended. What caused me to cross dress? I liked the feel of my mother's nylon slips. I was attracted by the nylon. Why did I graduate to panties, bra, slips, girdles, hosiery and dresses? I often wonder. If I speculate it may be because my mother said I was suppose to be a girl. There would have been mom and dad and older brother and younger sister. I remember crying as a four (?) year old that she did not love because I was not a girl. She consoled me and after that she never mentioned it. I always got into trouble for breaking the rules at home and school.

Why am I sitting at the key board right now in a midi length black with floral design dress, black bra, panty, slip, hosiery and heels???? I don't know and I really now longer care what got me here.

[suzy1]

I think all of your examples are misplaced. The answer for cross dressing is genetic

We have our answer. No need to spend anymore time on this then.

[Alice Torn]

Some of us are like old Joe Friday, we want just the facts!LOL

[Janet Doe]

I was maybe 4 or 5 the first time a wore one of my sisters dress`s ( She is 14 months older than I am ) At that age, it was neither sexual or stimulating, it just felt right.